You’ll soon be able to play such vintage hits as Ninja Gaiden, Alien Breed and Technician Ted on your Xbox as Antstream Arcade comes to the platform this month.
Antstream Arcade, the retro cloud gaming service, is coming to Xbox Series X/S and Xbox One. Billed by Antstream itself as “Xbox’s biggest content drop in history,” the service’s arrival on the platform will give subscribers access to over 1,300 retro games from bygone computers, consoles and arcade systems.
Antstream first launched in 2020, and allows its users to play vintage games via an app or web browser – platforms already supported include PC, Linux, iOS and Android. The games available span the gamut from golden-age-of-arcade staples such as Pac-Man to admirably obscure games on the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 (Ranarama – there’s a name I haven’t seen in a while) right up to the late 90s PlayStation era.
As well as a growing library of games, Antstream also provides cloud-based save states, high score tables, mini-game challenges, and online tournaments. A convenient means of playing older games without resorting to ROMs and emulation, the service also helps with preserve a slice of game history, according to Antstream founder Steve Cottam.
“Despite living in an age of incredible technology, I found it wasn’t easy enough to access the games I loved growing up and I wanted to be able to easily share scores and compete against friends,” Cottam said in a press release. “We believe in the preservation and accessibility of all games, the great, the impossible and the forgotten or lesser known too, I’m very proud to bring the Antstream Arcade platform to the Xbox community”.
Antstream Arcade launches later this month on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and a subscription will cost £29.99 (or $29.99) per month or £79.99 ($79.99) for lifetime access.
If you happen to live in Vatican City, there’s good news: the cloud service will also be available in your holy enclave, and not just the UK, USA, Canada and Europe. You can find more details about the Xbox version of Anstream on its website.
Read more: Almost 90 percent of old video games are unavailable and endangered, a new survey indicates
